U.S. Customs Officers Destroy New Zealand Cricketer's Bat to Look for Drugs
Aug 11, 2014, 9:35 pm
#46
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I can't see any G&M logo. That piece of wood is too thin and flat to be a cricket bat. The edges of a cricket bat are usually at least an inch thick with a slightly rounded look. And usually the top surface is adorned (as are the edges sometimes) with brand names etc. I played cricket in school and I definitely know how a cricket bat looks like.
Aug 11, 2014, 11:30 pm
#47
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Lendl Simmons plays with an SS Ton as can be seen here a few weeks ago.
Compare to the pic tweeted by Jimmy Neesham and you can clearly see the black/Blue colour way with the top left of the, and bottom right of the 'T'.
The SMALLER sticker seems to be missing - maybe removed by customs as there is a drill hole there.
The turquoise tint looks like the bat was personalised for use in the CPL as it is the same colours as Guyana, or it could be a metallic strip shining off the kit.
As you may realise I am a big cricket geek and watch pretty much every match played on any given day
I will leave it up to you to agree or disagree with the evidence....
For those wondering about the non financial 'value' of the bat, Simmons scored 0 in his last match before the incident, and scored 97 with his new one
Sorry for the interruption, you may continue with the TSA bashing ^
Compare to the pic tweeted by Jimmy Neesham and you can clearly see the black/Blue colour way with the top left of the, and bottom right of the 'T'.
The SMALLER sticker seems to be missing - maybe removed by customs as there is a drill hole there.
The turquoise tint looks like the bat was personalised for use in the CPL as it is the same colours as Guyana, or it could be a metallic strip shining off the kit.
As you may realise I am a big cricket geek and watch pretty much every match played on any given day
I will leave it up to you to agree or disagree with the evidence....
For those wondering about the non financial 'value' of the bat, Simmons scored 0 in his last match before the incident, and scored 97 with his new one
Sorry for the interruption, you may continue with the TSA bashing ^
Aug 12, 2014, 12:55 am
#48
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Lendl Simmons plays with an SS Ton as can be seen here a few weeks ago.
Compare to the pic tweeted by Jimmy Neesham and you can clearly see the black/Blue colour way with the top left of the, and bottom right of the 'T'.
The SMALLER sticker seems to be missing - maybe removed by customs as there is a drill hole there.
The turquoise tint looks like the bat was personalised for use in the CPL as it is the same colours as Guyana, or it could be a metallic strip shining off the kit.
As you may realise I am a big cricket geek and watch pretty much every match played on any given day
I will leave it up to you to agree or disagree with the evidence....
For those wondering about the non financial 'value' of the bat, Simmons scored 0 in his last match before the incident, and scored 97 with his new one
Sorry for the interruption, you may continue with the TSA bashing ^
Compare to the pic tweeted by Jimmy Neesham and you can clearly see the black/Blue colour way with the top left of the, and bottom right of the 'T'.
The SMALLER sticker seems to be missing - maybe removed by customs as there is a drill hole there.
The turquoise tint looks like the bat was personalised for use in the CPL as it is the same colours as Guyana, or it could be a metallic strip shining off the kit.
As you may realise I am a big cricket geek and watch pretty much every match played on any given day
I will leave it up to you to agree or disagree with the evidence....
For those wondering about the non financial 'value' of the bat, Simmons scored 0 in his last match before the incident, and scored 97 with his new one
Sorry for the interruption, you may continue with the TSA bashing ^
And it's a cricket bat.
Aug 12, 2014, 12:57 am
#49
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,919
The Problem with gear like hockey sticks and cricket bats is they are made of wood and this means each piece of gear has its own sweet spot this is often the reason for some players to preferably one item over another because it simply suits their game better.
Last edited by moeve; Aug 12, 2014 at 12:58 am Reason: Drat autospell
Aug 12, 2014, 12:57 am
#50
Join Date: Oct 2007
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If there is no reasonable belief that drilling in a piece of solid wood might uncover illicit drugs, would the agent be risking a claim of racial profiling as well?
So USCBP did him a favor.
So USCBP did him a favor.
Aug 12, 2014, 6:59 am
#52
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I don't find that hard to believe, even if it weren't the case in this situation.
I've seen customs shred US-company-factory-packaged diapers over the "you could stash stuff in there, let's just ____ it to make sure it's not there". I've seen their Danish equivalent waste an hour examining the same diapers with multiple x-ray scans and then trying to examine all sorts of unrelated junk until a supervisor told junior to give it up.
I've seen customs shred US-company-factory-packaged diapers over the "you could stash stuff in there, let's just ____ it to make sure it's not there". I've seen their Danish equivalent waste an hour examining the same diapers with multiple x-ray scans and then trying to examine all sorts of unrelated junk until a supervisor told junior to give it up.
Perhaps they now just randomly tear things apart, but I still doubt it. More often what appears completely random really isn't.
Aug 12, 2014, 7:02 am
#53
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I'm well aware of the excuses for customs agents' tearing up of children's diapers too. Apologists for customs (hitting the wrong targets) can bring up all sorts of things to try to rationalize property damage, and have brought that up before too.
Last edited by GUWonder; Aug 12, 2014 at 7:08 am
Aug 12, 2014, 8:04 am
#54
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shame, TSA couldnt just x-ray the bat, I am sure the cricket player was not in the least bit amused.
Aug 12, 2014, 8:26 am
#55
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Often it's just agent's (racist and/or sexist) prejudices that hits a random individual of the targeted background(s) and hits such person for no good reason.
I'm well aware of the excuses for customs agents' tearing up of children's diapers too. Apologists for customs (hitting the wrong targets) can bring up all sorts of things to try to rationalize property damage, and have brought that up before too.
I'm well aware of the excuses for customs agents' tearing up of children's diapers too. Apologists for customs (hitting the wrong targets) can bring up all sorts of things to try to rationalize property damage, and have brought that up before too.
I can only speak from my personal experience, training received, etc. Based on that, we will have to agree to disagree on this point.
Aug 12, 2014, 10:47 pm
#56
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 223
Aren't cricket bats solid wood (like baseball bats)? How could someone "hide" something - especially on x-ray - inside? Of course, there seem to be some here who feel "it" wasn't a cricket bat (I wouldn't know, having never been interested in that game 
). I was stuck in Bosnia in the 1990s with a bunch of British soldiers who insisted on watching cricket matches on our one-and-only TV set for hours and hours on end, but I did manage to survive cricket season.
). I was stuck in Bosnia in the 1990s with a bunch of British soldiers who insisted on watching cricket matches on our one-and-only TV set for hours and hours on end, but I did manage to survive cricket season.
Aug 13, 2014, 7:25 am
#57
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It's America. They have a country to protect. So if some Kiwi wants to transit through the most awesomely awesome country in the world then he should be appreciative of a few holes in his bat in return for being allowed to breath the fresh air of freedom. 
Naturally Americans will defend this action in the name of their own security. Should however an American baseball player receive the same treatment at a New Zealand airport they'd be demanding an air assault on Wellington to let them know who's boss and not to mess with "Murika's game."
Naturally Americans will defend this action in the name of their own security. Should however an American baseball player receive the same treatment at a New Zealand airport they'd be demanding an air assault on Wellington to let them know who's boss and not to mess with "Murika's game."
Aug 13, 2014, 5:40 pm
#58
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having played cricket both in England and India during my youngers years, I can tell you it that it takes quite a bit of time to season a bat, and even then finding a sweet spot that suits your style of hitting, means going thru probably at least 10 to 12 bats, in my time playing I had about 6 bats that I travelled with, depending on the condtion of the pitch, the weather, and of course the bowling team I was playing against were some of the reasons for selecting a particular bat...
shame, TSA couldnt just x-ray the bat, I am sure the cricket player was not in the least bit amused.
shame, TSA couldnt just x-ray the bat, I am sure the cricket player was not in the least bit amused.